Killington Peak just before the storm

Killington Peak just before the storm

It has been a wild week at Killington and it is only Wednesday.

Yesterday was a ski day for me. I met the normal group up on the mountain at 9:00 AM and skied right thru until the r@*ns came at noon. Conditions on Tuesday were pretty good, although predominately flat and fast. Of course, since Tuesday noon time, everything has changed so no need for further details on Tuesdays outing.

Yesterday afternoon, last night, and for most of this morning, Killington experienced a r@*n/ice storm. Not quite of the proportions of the storm we had a few weeks ago, but in general, surfaces around the inn were covered with 1/4 to 1/2 inches of ice. When I took the snow stake reading this morning, it was down to 8 inches, a drop of 1 3/4 inches from yesterday morning.

But then at noon time today, everything changed. The temperature dropped 10 degrees of so, and it started to snow...hard! Local roads instantly froze. (I have had to drive 2 cars up Butler Road for guests in the last hour) I went back out and re-took the snow stake picture around 2:00 PM. The reading stood at 10 inches. A full 2 inches of snow had fallen in about an hour or so. Of course the new snow is hiding the slush/ice from the prior 24 hours of r@*n. But hey, it's snow. We will take it. The mountain can groom it. Ski surfaces will survive again!

A few quick comments on the Killington Community Meeting on Monday Evening. First... what a turnout. Close to 300 people were in attendance. In a town with only about 900 adult residents, the fact that a third of the community turned out for a meeting about the towns future was quite impressive. Paul Costello, of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, led the assembled group in a brainstorming session to identify things that the Killington Community could do to improve the local economy. This meeting was a data collection process, with no results formulated. There will be a follow on meeting of February 26th where all of the ideas collected at Mondays meeting will be presented for towns people to prioritize. It will be an interesting process to participate in and follow.

Let it snow!